Elspeth Kennedy

Elspeth Cantlie Kennedy (born Elsie Cantlie Myron; 3 April 1931 – 8 January 2017) was a New Zealand sharebroker and community leader. She was the first woman in New Zealand to be elected as a member of a metropolitan stock exchange, and the first to run her own broking firm. Kennedy chaired the Nelson Tasman Hospice Trust from 1998 to 2014.

Early life and family Born in Invercargill on 3 April 1931 as Elsie Cantlie Myron, she was educated at Southland Girls' High School. She showed early business acumen, running her grandfather's coal retailing business when she was just 17 years old, and then worked at the Invercargill City Council where she became credit manager at the age of 20 years.

She married James Kennedy-Simpson. The couple had three children but later divorced.

Later business activities After resigning as chair of Main Corporation in December 1987, Kennedy was involved in setting up the Government Computer Service, of which she was a director until 1993. She also served as deputy chair of the Nelson Bays Business Development Board, chair of the South Island Promotion Association, and a director of various companies including Mount Cook Group. Also in 1990 she received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.

In 2003, Kennedy was named Nelsonian of the Year by the Nelson Mail newspaper. She was posthumously inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame in 2018.

Death Kennedy died in Nelson on 8 January 2017.